CKLN's Tax Fraud Revisited;

CKLN's Tax Fraud Revisited;

Back in 2008, when I was working at CKLN, the former radio station based at (but not owned by) Ryerson University, was a time of unbelievable turmoil as a group of far left activists backed by the Ryerson Student Unions (The RSU and CESAR) engaged in a prolonged campaign to seize control of the station. This led to more than a year of organized harrassment, threats and intimidation, I myself was personally pushed, shoved and spat on by swarms of demonstrators. The public excuse for this thugish behavior was to stop CKLN management's supposed "Corporate Agenda". Exhibit number one of this mythical agenda was the decision to end CKLN's so-called "Tax Trustee Status".

This will require some explanation; CKLN, like all community stations, relied on fundraising campaigns, however CKLN (unlike the U of T station CIUT) was not a registered charity and so could not issue tax receipts in exchange for donations. Since applying for charitable status would have required making their books public CKLN decided to take a short-cut. Thus a decade or so ago CKLN entered into an elaborate scheme with a charity called "Tractors For Our Daily Bread" by which CKLN would do it's annual funding drive, then give the money to "Tractors" who would then take ten percent and return the rest with tax receipts under their name. Thereby CKLN could pretend to be a charity and use these tax receipts as fundraiser incentives. From the beginning there were questions raised about the legality of this arrangement and a few actual complaints. Typically at CKLN these were dismissed as coming from "The Right Wing" but around the early 2000's Ryerson University and RSU were concerned enough to insist that all mention of this scheme were to be removed from the website, which at that time was shared with RSU. That should have been a warning sign, but CKLN continued to issue these bogus tax receipts and Ryerson and RSU looked the other way.

By 2007 there had been a change in management and the new CKLN management (and our lawyer) took a look at this arrangement and decided it was basically an illegal money-laundering scheme and announced that it would be immediately cancelled. This was to be done quietly to avoid attracting attention to the fact that CKLN had been issuing these bogus tax receipts for a decade. That's when the shit hit the fan. A group of leftist activists had been stirring up trouble for awhile. They were largely organized by CKLN's paid staff who were in contact negotiations and looking for raises and were therefore hoping to replace CKLN management with one of their own choosing who would then hand them the raises and benefits that they were demanding. The ending of CKLN's "Charitable Tax Trustee Status" (as they called it) was to be the rallying point for various left wing activists which would include RSU. According to their conspiracy theroy the ending of CKLN's "Charitable Tax Trustee Status" was part of a larger "Corporate Agenda" that would force CKLN to "sell-out" to corporate sponsors and advertisers. You would think this sort of nonsense would be easy to dismiss but you should never understand the willingness of activists (whatever their ideology) to live in a paranoid fantasy world of all-encompassing conspiracies.

When CKLN's annual funding drive came up in October 2007 CKLN's paid staff and many of the volunteer hosts flat-out refused to follow the decision to stop issuing the tax receipts and promised them anyway. On the air and online. During one of many hostile staff meetings the Funding Co-ordinator, Daniel Vandervoort (who also happened to be the Treasurer and Board member of Ryerson's other student union, CESAR) produced a copy of the contact, signed by himself, between CKLN and Tractors and used it to to claim that CKLN was legally bound and would be sued by Tractors if we pulled out of it. This turned out to be a mistake since a quick glance showed that the contract had a cancellation clause, but there were bigger issues which I spotted right away;

a) The central clause stated that the funds raised would be used to finance "The charitable activities of CKLN Radio Inc." which was a serious problem since CKLN had no charitable activities at all. All the funds would go right back to CKLN, mostly to pay staff, which was fraud on it's face. When this arrangement was set up there were in fact some vague ideas for CKLN to find some sort of somewhat chartiable activities to sponsor such as benefit shows etc. and a "CKLN Foundation" was set up to manage this. Naturally nothing much ever happended and no money went out. As mentioned charities must open their books to Revenue Canada to prove they are using the money raised properly and CKLN could clearly not do so.

b) It turned out that there were problems with "Tractors For Our Daily Bread" as well. Firstly it was no longer listed as a legal charity in Canada, although it had been earlier and a seperate branch did exist in America. The stated pupose of "Tractors", with it's unwieldy name, was to raise money to buy tractors in Canada, then refurbish them and send them to Africa to be used there. This sounds fine but it would seem that only a small number of tractors actually got sent to Africa which is not a good sign. I also noticed that "Tractors" was not only a charity, but a Christian Ministry which along with the tractors was also sending bibles to Africa. Just because they were a Christian Ministry does not mean they were not a charity of course and this would not be a problem for them per-se but it would be a big problem for CKLN who was not disclosing this religious aspect to their donors. Much of CKLN's left-wing membership was made up of atheists, gays, Wiccans, Muslims and the occasional Satanist and it is safe to say they would have objected to the discovery that ten percent of the money raised was going to covert the heathens in Africa. CKLN had an absolute responsibilty to disclose this both to their membersip and to donors and their failure to do so was another legal timebomb waiting to go off.

c) Vandervoort did not have legal signing authority to sign a contact of this nature anyway. Even better was my jawdropping discovery that Vandervoort and Tractors CEO Eto Ekpenyong Eto had actually acted as witnesses to each other's signatures which was blatantly, even laughably illegal.



We had actually been searching for a copy of this contact for months only to be met with obstruction by CKLN's paid staff and prior management who claimed all copies had been lost, so it's sudden appearence came as a surprise and he tried to take back all copies before anyone could get to close a look. Luckily I saved a copy and sent it to CKLN's lawyer who took one look and insisted that it be cancelled immediately. When this was explained to CKLN staff one replied with the profound comment that "This is why we don't consult with lawyers". Other volunteers insisted that such money laundering schemes were common practice in small non-profits.

The response from the various activist groups was even less measured. During the actual funding drive some hosts, especially the hosts of "OCAP Radio" went on air and promised tax receipts. Then afterwards used these promises to insist that CKLN was thereby legally bound to issue them. The Funding Co-ordinator was then caught trying to mail out thousands of reminder letters promising tax receipts. By the end of 2008 there was a petition drive (supported by RSU) to "impeach" CKLN's management and one of prime reasons listed was the "Ending of CKLN's Charitable Tax Trustee Status" in favour of "Corporate Advertsing". That party line became and remains an article of faith amongst the far left activists associated with CKLN.

Throughout 2008 these activist types escalated their activities in to daily picketting, on-air rants, and vitriolic on-line posts while staff meetings degenerated into screaming matches. I was personally shoved and spat as well as being targetted with a frivolous nuisance suit which I got dismissed. All of this was openly supported by Ryerson's Student Unions who refused security coverage, siezed the station's assets and by Feb. 2009 changed the locks and pulled the station off the air for nine months until eventually they could get the loyal leftist management they wanted. All of this was given favourable coverage by the Ryerson student press in the name of fight "The Corporate Agenda" of course. By the time they got back onair in October 2009 the CRTC had gotten fed up and hauled them up for hearings in 2010 which resulted in CKLN having it's license revoked and pulled off the air for good. I testified at those hearings. Which were hilarious. Good times.

Anyway the point of this background info is to bring us back to Eto Ekpenyong Eto, Tractors For Our Daily Bread and their "Charitable Tax Trustee Status" scheme. The one that we said was probably illegal and the one that the RSU and the OCAP posse swore was "standard practice". This month this little noticed news item came out from Revenue Canada;






"January 14, 2014 14:05 ET

Tax Preparer and Charity Director Convicted of Fraud
BRAMPTON, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 14, 2014) - The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that, on January 10, 2014, David Ajise, a former tax preparer operating in Toronto, Ontario, was sentenced in the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, to a 30 month jail term for fraud over $5,000. On July 22, 2013, Eto Ekpenyong Eto was also sentenced to a conditional sentence of two years less a day for fraud over $5,000 for the same case. Appearing at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, Ajise was found guilty of one count of fraud over $5,000 under the Criminal Code of Canada on June 14, 2013, while Eto pleaded guilty to the same charge on May 23, 2013.

Ajise is the former proprietor of Datronix Solutions, a Toronto-based tax preparation service. A CRA investigation revealed that, Ajise and Eto participated in a scheme which generated $5,023,456 in fraudulent charitable donations for the 2003 to 2005 tax years. In addition to a fee of $30 to $50 for tax return preparation, Ajise charged his clients 10% of the face value of the fraudulent charitable donation receipts he provided. The fraudulent receipts were claimed by Ajise's clients on 623 income tax returns and resulted in taxes evaded of $1,413,166.

Eto, in his role as a director of the Tractors for Our Daily Bread Canada charity, provided charitable donation receipts for amounts larger than the donor's actual contribution. Although Eto himself did not personally gain from his participation in the fraudulent charitable donation scheme, his actions assisted in the fraud. The preceding information was obtained from the court records.

"Our taxes pay for the high level of government services that Canadians count on," said Darrell Mahoney, Assistant Commissioner of the Ontario Region of the Canada Revenue Agency. "When someone tries to evade taxes, it affects all Canadians." Taxpayers who have not filed returns for previous years, or who have not reported all of their income, can still voluntarily correct their tax affairs. They may not be penalized or prosecuted if they make a valid disclosure before they become aware of any compliance action being initiated by the CRA against them. These taxpayers may only have to pay the taxes owing, plus interest. More information on the Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP) can be found on the CRA's Web site at;

www.cra.gc.ca/voluntarydisclosures.
Further information on convictions can also be found in the Media Room on the CRA website at www.cra.gc.ca/convictions.
Contact Information;
Sam Papadopoulos
Manager, Communications

So not only were they charged but also convicted and sentenced to jail. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Too bad CKLN isn't around anymore to go down with them.

I know it's bad form to say "I told you so" but you have to admit; we did.

And furthermore....BWAAA-HAAA-HAAA!!!! VICTORY IS MINE!!!

FOX North Wants Your Money You Moochers!

When we last left our friends over at FOX NORTH, sorry I meant SUN TV News, they were going off the air after loosing their right to broadcast over the air for free (something I wrote about earlier here), and being reduced to the wastelands of cable access. Before that of course they distinguished themselves with their jihad against The CBC for "wasting" tax dollars. And then we had their ambush attacks on bands and arts groups for partaking of the piddly arts grants they can apply for (which I also wrote about here,) while of course somehow forgetting the millions of taxpayer subsidies they themselves get (through their parent company QMI) for their not exactly non-profit Mom & Pop storefront. Unfortunately the CBC didn't forget and gleefully splashed the nasty details on their website. More on that further down. BTW I also wrote about the last days in the SUN TV Bunker here.

You might think that after that kind of public smackdown that the "Principled Conservatives" over at SUN TV might be a little ashamed to march back to the public trough. Boy are you naive. Turns out that to the surprise of nobody SUN TV's anemic rating have flat-lined. Turns out that the "Great Silent Conservative Majority" doesn't actually exist. Or if they do they don't want to pay for the kind of right wing pablum served out by SUN TV. So now this highly profitable multi-media conglomerate desperately needs somebody to ride to their rescue. That would be you. They don't really need you to actually watch their recycled street corner ranting, thank God. No, they just want you to have to pay for it.

SOME FINE SUN NEWS PROGRAMMING THAT WAS SO RACIST THEY HAD TO WITHDRAW AND APOLOGIZE FOR:


(Note; I know this video has now been deleted from Youtube; read why at the bottom of this story, meanwhile here's some more info, and here on Levant's hate filled rant that almost landed him and SUN TV in court)

But back to our rant already in progress.

How you ask, will I have to pay for this drivel? Well SUN TV has an application in front of the CRTC demanding to be put on basic cable. That means that everybody who has cable would be forced to subsidize SUN TV even if you have no desire to ever watch it. Even if you actively despise everything they stand for. Even if you are one of the groups that are routinely attacked as part of SUN TV's ever growing gallery of Strawmen who are intent on destroying capitalism and the family. You know who you are; Muslims, Natives, Gays, Unions, Roma, Artists, Environmentalists, Pacifists, Separatists, Liberals, The NDP, The CBC, University Students and...oh Fuck it... pretty much anyone who doesn't live in Alberta. They may hate you but you have to not only tolerate their right to take to the airwaves to trash you, but you must also actually subsidize them as well. That's the whole point of this exercise.

Do the same Conservatives who have also railed against the same strawmen have any problems with this. Actually at least one does. Take it away, Andrew Coyne from National Post;

A few choice quotes;
"There just aren’t words for this kind of gall. Even by the standards of the cultural sector, it’s breathtaking: proof, yet again, that the only thing you need to succeed in Canadian business is utter shamelessness, coupled with an invincible sense of entitlement to the public’s money. Leave aside its general positioning of itself as the voice for conservative, free-market types, or its constant lectures to others on the need for self-reliance. This is the network that, when it is not talking about itself (sole opposition to the “non-Sun media”) is more or less obsessed with the CBC and its “billion-dollar subsidy.” All forgotten, apparently."

"Well, asking is not quite the word. The network, never shy about self-promotion, seems almost an infomercial for itself these days. Network personalities have been drafted to explain the urgent public necessity of making Sun mandatory carriage, that is of taxing everyone with cable or satellite service. Viewers are directed to a website, where they can send an email to the CRTC in support of its application."

Turns out that when SUN TV applied for it's original license two years ago SUN TV vice pres Kory Teneycke sanctimoniously denied they would never, ever, ever even consider asking for basic carriage coverage.

"Sun, he wrote, “is not, nor has it ever, asked for ‘mandatory carriage’ by cable or satellite companies.” Why, the very idea: “this would be tantamount to a tax on everyone with cable or satellite service.”

SUN TV TALKS ABOUT IT'S FAVORITE SUBJECT, ITSELF:


Yeah well, that was then. Back when they were positive that there was a vast untapped vein of true conservatives just starving for a steady diet of right wing bloviating. Or not. Turns out that SUN TV's ratings were sometime less than 10,000 for the whole country, and that was while they still had the over-the-air signal.

So, remind me again. In a capitalist system what does a corporation do when they do a massive belly-flop like this. Why, they get the taxpayers to bail them out of course. Duh.

Besides it's not like there aren't plenty of other examples of SUN TV hypocrisy are there? Like, say pushing the withdrawing the public partial subsidizing of political parties, because in a free society taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for ideas and speech they don't like. Or how about attacking the longstanding union dues structure whereby every member of a union pays dues to that union because you know; Freedom! But when it comes to bailing out the Pravda wing of The Conservative Party? Cough it up you deadbeats.

So that brings us to you, the viewers. Or non-viewers if their ratings are to be believed. If you don't want to have to subsidize SUN TV you have one, and only one last chance to say something now or forever hold your peace. You, Yes You can write a letter to the CRTC and state your opposition. You could also ask to speak at the hearings, but they are going to be held in Gatineau, Quebec on April 23. It is still worth writing a letter though. I have testified at two different CRTC hearings and written support letters for four more, not counting this one. I have always found it to be an easy process and have always felt it was a worthwhile exercise. The CRTC actually does read these things and it does matter. SUN TV knows it too. Ever since they decided to go for the basic cable payday they have spent even more of their air time begging for their handfull of viewers to write support letters to the CRTC, many have. On the other hand many of those who have been the targets of their hateful rhetoric have also taken the time to write letters to the CRTC as well that are considerably less helpfull. Payback's a bitch. At last check there were several thousand submissions on the CRTC site. I haven't the time to read them all so I don't know how they breakdown as a pro vs against ratio but there are plenty of both. I also noticed that singer Holly McNarland fired off her two cents worth. She is not a fan of SUN TV BTW.



So get out your typing finger and go to the CRTC site

Then scroll down a few entries to the part that says;

"23 April 2013 Gatineau, Quebec Applications for mandatory distribution on cable and satellite distribution systems pursuant to section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act and applications for the licence renewal of independent conventional, pay and specialty television services Deadline for submission of interventions/comments/answers: 20 February 2013
2013-19-1 - 23 April 2013 Correction to the preamble and item 21 Extension of deadline for interventions/comments/answers: 27 February 2013 Extension of deadline for replies: 11 March 2013"

In the second column you will find a heading that says;
"Extension of deadlines 27 February 2013"

And a button that says "Submit". Click on that and follow the instructions. It's just that simple. If some mouth-breathing Red Neck Goober can figure it out so can you. Now go and come up with something pithy. The deadline is February 27. The second deadline of March 11 is for SUN TV to respond in the rather unlikely event that they actually do.

Incidentally just as further incentive here's that list of taxpayer gifts you have already lavished on SUN TV and their parent company QMI;

"Granted to magazine publishers under the Canadian Periodical Fund.

A list of Quebecor properties and the commensurate amount they received from taxpayers for 2010-11, via the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Chez Soi: $487, 735
Cool: $191.136
7 Jours: $327,160
TV Hebdo: $1,157,100
TV Hebdo Teleromans: $8,480
Les idees de ma maison: $376,943
Clin d’oeil: $480,749
Cote Jardins: $33,678
Derniere Heure: $154,966
Echoes Vedettes: $188,704
Le Lundi: $376,018
Moi & Cie: $7,947
Tout simplement Clodine: $99,489
Clodine Hors serie: $4,366

TOTAL $3.7 million."

And keep in mind that's in JUST ONE YEAR!!



UPDATE: Here is the letter I wrote to the CRTC using their website;

"As a long time journalist and Community Radio programmer I am writing in opposition to the application by SUN News for mandatory distribution on cable and satellite distribution systems.

I will not belabor for the Commission the obvious hypocrisy of SUN News' longstanding vocal opposition to extending this very same mandatory distribution to every other Network on the supposed principal that nobody should have to pay for a service they did not use. Or the hypocrisy of SUN News' equally strident opposition of Arts grants, taxpayer subsidies of political parties and compulsory union dues for the same reason. Clearly that was before SUN News utterly failed to reach an audience with their "service" and there are larger issues with this application than the applicant's brazen shamelessness.

My Opposition will focus on five main points;

1. SUN News was granted a license on the promise that they would never ask for Mandatory Distribution.; In 2011 SUN News Vice President wrote in his own newspapers stating that; SUN TV “is not, nor has it ever, asked for ‘mandatory carriage’ by cable or satellite companies.” and “this would be tantamount to a tax on everyone with cable or satellite service.” All they were asking for was that carriers be obliged to make Sun available to those who wanted to order it. Any suggestion that SUN TV would be seeking Mandatory were “lies, half-truths and slander” . Having been granted it's license on the promise of not demanding Mandatory Carriage, SUN News should not now be allowed to sneak such an application through the back door.

2. Lack of interest for programming; Since going on air SUN TV has received consistently dismal ratings. This is in spite of several high profile advertising campaigns and the ability to cross-promote with the national Sun Newspaper chain as well as several talk radio shows hosted by SUN TV hosts. If SUN TV has not been able to generate an audience with all these advantages and resources then it should not be the responsibility of either the Commission or cable subscribers to bail them out.

3. SUN TV does not provide special interest programming; Although SUN TV has described it's programming a "special interest", SUN TV does not qualify as a specialty channel as the term is generally used. Specialty Programming has traditionally been considered as programming that speaks to and comes from small and marginalized communities with little or no access to mainstream media outlets. Past examples have included Campus Based Community Radio, Aboriginal Communities, French language communities outside Quebec, foreign language communities and small isolated rural communities. Another different category has been cable channels dedicated to specific subjects not covered in the mainstream media but of sufficient cultural or educational importance such as Weather Channels, Religious Channels, Children's Programming, Music, Sports, Cooking, Learning etc. I support this tradition, however by no stretch of the imagination can SUN TV be considered in a similar category. SUN TV is a corporate network which considerable resources, they should not need further support. The fact that SUN TV's ratings have actually been lower than most niche specialty channels should not be incentivized.

4. The CRTC does not grant licenses to political parties and unions; While SUN TV bills itself as a "News Network" any perusal of it's programming makes it abundantly clear that SUN News is in fact the propaganda wing of the Conservative Party(s). While in certain European, Latin American and African countries political parties often own their own radio and television stations, this has never been the case in Canada. Nor has the CRTC licensed labour unions. This standard should be adhered to, the experience of nations that have highly politicized airwaves such as The United States, Russia, Italy and Venezuela does not lead to confidence that democracy has been strengthened, that the level of public discourse has improved or that the public has become better educated. In fact the evidence of the examples above shows the opposite is true.

5. SUN News has built up a record of offensive comments and generated a number of complaints far in excess of any "News" station of comparable size. Since beginning it's broadcasting SUN TV has provoked an unprecedented number of complaints from viewers to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. These complaints have covered such matters as repeated airing of openly racist and Homophobic attacks on Native People, Roma, Muslims, Unions and Gays that would not be aired on other channels. The response to these complaints by SUN TV has been defiant. No person has been dismissed or disciplined as a result of these complaints nor has there been any noticeable change in the hateful tone of the programming, nor is there likely to be. In fact in 2001 the various Sun newspapers withdrew from the various Press Councils in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba calling them "politically correct". The attitude of SUN TV has been equally hostile to any oversight. On July 13, 2004 the CRTC rescinded the license of radio station CHOI-FM in Quebec for repeated broadcasting of offensive content. I am not asking for SUN TV to be taken off the air, however members of the public should not be forced to subsidize programming that is brazenly insulting and offensive to many communities and individuals in Canada.

SUN TV's inability to find an audience is a failure by the applicant to offer a product that a sizable number of Canadians wish to see. It is not a failure of the CRTC to support them. SUN TV should not be incentivized to fail. To do so would set an unwelcome precedent. I ask that this application be rejected. Yours Truly; Yada Yada Yada"

Note; I realize my letter is a little long, but don't let that faze you, most public letters are just one paragraph. I was kind of on a roll. That deadline again is Feb.27 so get to work.



UPDATE; As of the end of March the video of Erzra Levant's jaw-droppingly racist rant against the Gypsie/Roma people has been removed by Youtube due to a bullshit "Copyright" complaint, as have all other attempts by mere citizens to point out how disgustingly racist/homophobic/anti-native/anti-Muslim SUN TV is. This has become a favorite tactic of the sleazy right. Namely shutting down any on-line critique they don't like by filing a bogus "copyright" complaint with Youtube, Facebook, Twitter or Google which they inevitably cave into immediately. These claims would almost certainly not stand up in court where "Fair Use" arguments would be brought due to the obvious newsworthiness and public interest involved. However this would require the person who posted the video (or photos or even quotes) to hire a lawyer and take them to court, which they know most people can't afford. This of course is coming from a media organization which is always screaming for "transparency" from it's enemies like The CBC, Unions, Native Reserves, and any politician they don't like, but anyone expecting any sort of moral consistency from these shameless douche-bags is sadly naive. It's a cowardly, devious, dishonest, bully-boy tactic but it works. You know who else loves this sort of tactic? The sanctimonious left wing activists over at The Ryerson Student Union, The Canadian Federation of Students, CKLN (good riddance) and the Socialist Party of Ontario, one of whose leaders (in fact a former leader of ALL those organizations), Andrew Lehrer, is a past master at this. He in fact did this to a posting on this very blog awhile back over a posting that wasn't even about him, then he sent me a post bragging about it. Corrupt sleazebags are all the same regardless of the ideology they espouse. More on the SUN TV censorship campaign here.

Turns out there was more than one attempt to steal 88.1fm

You may remember that during the feeding frenzy over the vacant 88.1fm frequency left behind by the CKLN shutdown, I reported that one of the applicants (who had links to the Conservative Party via former Mike Harris era Ontario Cabinet Minister David Tubuschi) tried to game the system by lobbying a local Tory M.P.

From The Globe & Mail;

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/competing-bidders-for-radio-spot-donated-money-to-tory-mp/article4439785/

You may or may not also recall that my response at the time was basically; "Umm..Yeah, Right, Good Luck with that one. I'm pretty sure that's illegal though."

Turns out they weren't the only corporate weasels to try this stunt. Oh; and it also turns out that I was right about this. Too bad nobody told any of these high priced corporate radio big shots about the law. Then again apparently nobody told Finance Minster Jim Flaherty either. But the CRTC didn't need to be told though;
From The CBC;
www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/17/pol-cp-flaherty-tried-to-influence-broadcast-regulator-decision.html

From CTV;
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/oversight-to-blame-for-ethics-breach-flaherty-1.1119716

Selected quotes;

"Responding to a dressing down from the federal ethics watchdog who said Jim Flaherty broke the rules when he sent a letter to the CRTC advocating for a business in his riding, the finance minister says any wrongdoing was borne of an "oversight."
Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson’s criticism was made public on the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner's website Friday in a notice she also sent him outlining her conclusion after reviewing the case.
In her response, Dawson says Flaherty broke accountability guidelines, as well as conflict of interest rules, when he sent the letter to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission last March to advocate for Durham Radio Inc. and its ultimately-failed bid for an FM radio station licence."
Nevertheless, Dawson says, considering his political position, Flaherty was wrong to have stepped in on the company’s behalf.
"It is improper for you, as Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Greater Toronto Area, to have written a letter of support on behalf of a constituent to an administrative tribunal in relation to its decision making," Dawson wrote.
As news of his letter first made headlines earlier this week, Flaherty told The Canadian Press he would "continue to be a strong advocate for the people and community I represent. It is my job."
The Prime Minister's Office also came to his defence, saying on Thursday that Flaherty was merely performing his duties as an MP.
Flaherty did not only sign his letter as an MP, however, as his sign-off also notes his status as finance minister and minister responsible for the GTA.
"I therefore order you to refrain from writing any similar letters in the future without seeking approval from my office."

SO THERE! TAKE THAT!
And what is the bullshit excuse from the Tories? I'm glad you asked.

"As news of his letter first made headlines earlier this week, Flaherty told The Canadian Press he would "continue to be a strong advocate for the people and community I represent. It is my job." The Prime Minister's Office also came to his defence, saying on Thursday that Flaherty was merely performing his duties as an MP."

Translation; "Gosh I'm just a regular lil' ole M.P. You can't expect me to be up on obscure technicalities like this".

Uhh..No; Sorry guys the law says;
(From the Section of the Broadcasting Act:
7(1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 8, the Governor in Council (that means the Federal Cabinet or Prime Minister) may, by order, issue to the Commission directions of general application on broad policy matters with respect to;
(a) any of the objectives of the broadcasting policy set out in subsection 3(1); or
(b) any of the objectives of the regulatory policy set out in subsection 5(2).
Exception;
(2) No order may be made under subsection (1) in respect of the issuance of a licence to a particular person or in respect of the amendment, renewal, suspension or revocation of a particular licence.

That means that No! Jim Flaherty, You may NOT, repeat NOT, lobby the CRTC for one of your cronies. You got that now? Making the claim that "I was only acting as a normal Member of Parliament gosh darn it" is nonsense. He is no such thing. Especially since he signed the fucking letter as Canada's Finance Minister. There is a copy included in the CTV story.

I expect the idiots at Ryerson to be this clueless but there is no excuse for Flaherty not knowing this stuff. It's kinda part of his job. It's not like he's Rob Ford for Fuck Sakes. On the other hand if you scroll down to the comment section you will find the usual collection of right wing Trolls making just that excuse. Probably the same sort of Tea Party wannabes who think Rob Ford was "set up" by "The Left". So there are clearly no limits to willful blindness.

The good news here is that, as I predicted, the CRTC was not bought off. They granted to a small independent group who are promising to play an all Indie and heavy CanCon format. (I did not predict this, although I did write a submission in their support). I doubt they could have outbidded the corporate big fish who were swimming in this pond, so they must have earned it fair and square. Say what you like about the CRTC, and there are legitimate reasons to criticize them, the CRTC are totally honest. In these days of blase' corruption I give them a great deal of credit for that.

Incidentally this reminds me that when Fitzroy Gordon was granted a license for a Black/Caribbean station at 98.7FM he made a point of saying in several interviews that he got the license after Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenny personally met with him and intervened with the CRTC. Gordon has specifically said this several times in various public interviews. He also urged black people to vote for Harper because of this. If true however that would mean that either;

a) Harper and Kenny blatantly broke the law (I wouldn't have though they were that stupid, now I'm not so sure)

b) Gordon is an ass-kissing liar who is just sucking up to Harper and making himself look like an insider.

c) Harper and Kenny just bullshitted Gordon to get him out of their office and then did nothing but make some empty promises and Gordon was dumb enough to believe them.

d) The Tories are running a shakedown operation for broadcast licenses since while Gordon was lobbying Harper and Jason Kenny, Durham inc. was also lobbying the Finance Minister and yet another group was slipping cash to yet another Tory MP. Setting aside the obvious corruption, can it really be this chaotic in Ottawa? How does a corporate weasel know who to pay off around here? What happens if you pay off the wrong sleazebag? How would you know? As it turns out NONE of these three jerks got the 88.1fm license anyway (although Durham has a slew of others across Canada), so they ALL got scammed. Serves them right of course but it still seems a tad unfair, not to mention inefficient.

Either way they are openly bragging about breaking the law. Someone really should look into this.

FITZROY GORDON THANKS HARPER IN FRONT OF A TORY PARTY BANNER;

Moses Znaimer is a HUGE crybaby. And other reactions to the CRTC's ruling on 88.1fm in Toronto.

I have already written extensively about how the CRTC awarded the 88.1fm frequency lost by CKLN when they had their license revoked to a small group calling themselves "INDIE 88". They caught many by surprise when they beat out 21 other applicants most of which had bigger names and more money. Among those other applicants shocked by the results were PROUD FM, a gay themed radio station owned by the giant Evanov group who were the first to apply and Ryerson University who were expecting to get the license back and former City TV and Much Music Head Honcho Moses Znaimer.

First PROUD FM; Their application was to move from their current frequency at 103.9fm where they are limited to 60 watts and get a power upgrade which which they could reach the entire city. Evanov has insisted that without that increase PROUD FM can not stay in business. In the weeks before the decision was announced Evanov announced they were closing their Downtown offices and consolidating in their Mississauga office (Evanov owns a station in 905 country already; Z103fm, along with dozens more across Canada) and they were also laying off most of their staff. Some staff were willing to stay on as volunteers.

As one report in "XTRA" put it;

"In February, management decided to move administrative staff out of its Wellesley St location because of the neighbourhood’s increasingly high rents. The business side of Proud FM is now located across town, at Evanov’s headquarters at 5312 Dundas St W.

In 2010, Proud FM let go of four popular on-air hosts — Deb Pearce, Patrick Marano, Shaun Proulx and Mark Wigmore. Earlier, in November 2007, the station fired popular talent Maggie Cassella, Richard Ryder and a number of staffers. Ryder was eventually rehired."

"Willette says so much depends on the application for university radio station CKLN at 88.1 FM, which was owned by Ryerson University for almost three decades.

CKLN is bidding to get the licence back, but it has stiff competition: 27 groups applied for it last year, and 22 made the first cut in March, including Proud FM.

Since Evanov first won the licence for Proud FM in 2006, the station has been plagued by a weak frequency at 103.9 FM, says Evanov VP Carmela Laurignano.

The problem is Proud FM sits too close to Z103.5 on the dial, so they risk interfering with each other. As a result, Proud FM’s downtown transmission has been limited to 50 watts — too weak to penetrate downtown buildings. That means listeners can’t get a good signal, even in Toronto’s gay village.

“They can’t sell any ads now because of the signal strength,” Bellini says.

A move to 88.1 FM would entirely eliminate the problem, Willette says, noting that 88.1 FM is 128 watts, with a tower at First Canadian Place. “If we get 88.1 FM, then all of a sudden people who couldn’t hear us before can hear us. That means more listeners, so hopefully that equals more money.”

A lot has changed since 2006, she says. Although Evanov was well aware that Z103.5 bumped into 103.9 FM, they didn’t anticipate Toronto’s condo boom.

“We need that stronger signal to bring in more advertisers and grow,” she says.

Laurignano says the CRTC may also look favourably on the Proud FM bid because the station has fulfilled all of its application expectations, which Evanov agreed to when it bid for the licence. “We have fulfilled every single one,” she says.

But Proud FM falls short on programming — seven hours per week of newscasts and 21 hours of talk — which is a result of the staff cuts, she says. The station maintains its commitment to play 40 percent Canadian music.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s Proud FM is still alive, Willette assures, but the station is on life support and the future is uncertain. “Proud FM will always be around in one capacity or another. To what extent we can maintain live shows and a presence on the street? That is a valid question. I don’t know.”

Note; One important item left out of the report (and others) was the fact that PROUD FM recently got a power upgrade that they have yet to implement. At the hearings the CRTC took some exception to this and it alone was probably enough to deny them this upgrade. There has been little post rejection reaction as of yet from PROUD FM although I did notice some new ads in Now Magazine so I guess they aren't ready to give up the ghost yet.



Meanwhile back at Ryerson we can safely say that they are not pleased. And the NCRA are REALLY not happy;

(From a Trent University Paper);

The NCRA and Rodney Diverlus, President of the Ryerson Student Union, used the application process to emphasis the importance of community radio in general:

“We sent a clear message to the CRTC that we, as the future leaders and community members, see value in a radio station that is for our community and the broader Toronto community. Unfortunately this means less young voices and community voices will be heard on the airwaves.”

The diversity of voices requirement is based on a CRTC mandate and was interpreted by the NCRA’s Executive director Shelley Robinson as a diversity of voices participating in radio, not just represented by a radio station’s demographic or listenership:

“There is already so much commercial radio available,” she said. “This was a chance for something different. Radio Ryerson was a place where people would get to be citizens and creators, not just passive consumers of a set format.”

Trent Alumni and BCIT radio broadcasting student Philip Benmore noted a larger trend at the CRTC “away from grassroots, not-for-profit media, towards corporate controlled and heavily formatted commercial radio.”


Wait! Then there's my personal favorite part;

"Local NCRA member Trent Radio weighed in on the consultation process to lend support to campus/community radio in general. At an April 1st, 2012 meeting of the board, Trent Radio decided to support Radio Ryerson’s application, not with “cogent and winning arguments,” (since the application was deemed to be sufficient in such endeavours) but with a short statement of approval that included the quip: “Toronto needs all the community it can get.”



Umm...Yeah, Right. Good Call. Who needs "cogent and winning arguments" anyway when you have endorsements like that? And speaking of useless know-it-alls; what does the NCRA have to say about this?

From Vanmusic;

Radio Ryerson did not get their license back

15 September 2012 Despite public access option, CRTC decides to licence yet another commercial radio station.

Toronto is less indie now as they lost a campus-community radio. The CRTC has decided not to award 88.1FM to a campus-community radio licensee. The slot was given to commercial radio station Rock 95 . Its a great loss not only to Toronto but to the indie radio community.

“We sent a clear message to the CRTC that we, as the future leaders and community members, see value in a radio station that is for our community and the broader Toronto community. Unfortunately this means less young voices and community voices will be heard on the airwaves.” said Ryerson Student Union President Rodney Diverlus who also praised student efforts to win 88.1. “Students voted overwhelmingly in favour of funding a campus-community radio station through a referendum. We sent a clear message to the CRTC that we, as the future leaders and community members, see value in a radio station that is for our community and the broader Toronto community.”

"The National Campus and Community Radio Association also appeared in support of a campus-community radio license for 88.1FM over a commercial license. “I am very disappointed in this decision,” said NCRA’s Executive Director Shelley Robinson. “There is already so much commercial radio available and now there is one less opportunity for people in Toronto to directly access their local airwaves and represent their communities. Radio Ryerson was a place where people would get to be citizens and creators, not just consumers.”

"Press release from NCRA;

Today the CRTC licenced a commercial radio station for the last viable frequency in Toronto and denied the application of Radio Ryerson, making one less space available for community access to public airwaves.

Competing with dozens of prospective commercial radio stations, a group of Ryerson University students, faculty and community supporters proposed a station where the city and its many communities could speak for themselves and to their neighbours, sharing stories and music under-represented in other media.

Rodney Diverlus, President of the Ryerson Student Union, says the loss stretches beyond the campus.

“We sent a clear message to the CRTC that we, as the future leaders and community members, see value in a radio station that is for our community and the broader Toronto community. Unfortunately this means less young voices and community voices will be heard on the airwaves.” Shelley Robinson, Executive Director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) agrees.

“There is already so much commercial radio available,” she said. “This was a chance for something different. Radio Ryerson was a place where people would get to be citizens and creators, not just passive consumers of a set format.”

Jacky Tuinstra-Harrison was acting Station Manager and led Ryerson Radio’s application. She says she’s not sure next for the station, given the loss.

“There was such momentum. I had new students, up-and-coming musicians, senior citizens and my own neighbours asking how they could be involved,” she said, noting that the Broadcasting Act recognizes three pillars of Canadian broadcasting: commercial radio, public radio and community radio. “88.1FM ought to have been the place where we could live up to that ideal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah yes; all this misty eyed eulogizing of the Golden Age of CKLN when it was an open and accessible place rather than a hothouse of extremist politics and vicious turf wars is almost enough to make you forget the last several years of scorched earth warfare. Not to mention the roles that the Ryerson Student Union and the NRCA played in encouraging that strife in the furtherance of their own power hungry agendas that eventually led to the RSU's forcible seizure of the station. But not quite.



The various rejected other applicants which included the likes of The CBC, CHOQ, CARN CHIN and various heavyweights have been pretty quiet. Although one applicant; LIFE 100.3, a Christian Radio station based in Barrie who applied for a religious station, did send out a more gracious concession on their website;

September 11, 2012 The CRTC has denied our application for Christian radio at 88.1FM. The commission approved the application by Rock 95 Broadcasting Ltd.
Thank you to all who prayed and supported Trust Communications Ministry through this process."

But then again Trust Communications were always more realistic about their long shot status.

An applicant from Larche Communications inc. for an Easy Listening station to be called "Metro 88" has completely pulled their website without explanation although oddly their Twitter page is still up for now. Albeit there hasn't been a posting since spring.

And then there Moses Znaimer. He also put in an application to add 88.1 to their existing AM station. He is not a happy camper;

From Cartt.ca

Znaimer calls CRTC Toronto radio licence decision "appalling"
September 13, 2012
By Greg O’Brien

MONTREAL – Zoomer Media president and CEO Moses Znaimer was in Montreal Wednesday to watch the CRTC in action as it considers the proposed purchase of Astral Media by Bell Canada, but he was still shaken by Tuesday’s Commission decision on the 88.1 FM frequency in Toronto.
To say he’s not happy is an understatement. Znaimer told Cartt.ca in an interview the decision to grant the license to Rock 95 so it can launch a station with an independent music format was “appalling. It was stunningly insensitive and entirely inappropriate – and it’s galling to hear them talk about diversity in there (during the ongoing hearing here) as if they are protectors of it in the light of that decision.”
Znaimer says the rock genre – even if this one is aimed at indie acts and emerging Canadian artists – is very well represented in and around Toronto and another station hitting the same demographic is a mistake. “There are a handful or rock radio stations in Toronto today and if you add the ones on the periphery, there must be well over a dozen,” he added.
Zoomer media was one of 22 applicants to appear at the CRTC hearing in May hoping to gain the licence to operate at 88.1 FM, the license the CRTC revoked from Ryerson University in 2010 due to various infractions over a number of years. Some applicants wanted to launch new stations while others, like Znaimer, wanted to take an existing AM station to FM.
Znaimer wanted to move The New AM740 Zoomer Radio, his station aimed at the 45 and older demographic that suffers from, well, being an AM station and all the sound quality and interference challenges of that brings, to FM. Zoomer also owns another Toronto FM station, The New Classical 96.3 FM as well as Vision TV, JoyTV, One: Body Mind and Spirit, Zoomer Magazine and other assets.
The long-time broadcasting executive whose whole business is aimed at the 45-and-up set is very angry that with this new station a demographic which he and many others say just don’t listen to radio any more will still get another station.
“We brought forward evidence that was overwhelming to demonstrate that the largest percentage of the population throughout Canada today is what we identify as Zoomer – 45-plus – and we brought forward overwhelming evidence that all the radio stations currently are piled up in the demos that lie just younger than that,” said Znaimer.
“Even though there are one or two other stations that acquire an older audience, they don’t do that with a view of serving the older audience with information to make their life better, to give them advice on health and wellness, financial security and so on,” he added.
But why can’t that be done on the AM dial? “Every other station over the last 20 years has made the transition because AM is a medium in decline and in downtown Toronto it’s impossible to get (740) with any clarity because of the wiring and the high-rise buildings,” he noted. It was a main point the company made during the hearing in May in Toronto.
“It is galling to hear the Commission posture as some kind of defender of diversity in the face of a decision which is doubly stunning, doubly insensible because it was discussed at the hearing that the younger generation, the 18-34 demo referenced in the decision, no longer listens to radio,” he added. “This Commission went out of its way to deny a life raft to a station that is the sole provider to a considerable audience.”
Znaimer insists it’s not sour grapes that is driving his ire because he would have accepted a decision which didn’t go his way if the license hadn’t gone to a rock station. “If they had brought forward a decision that favored an ethnic station, or if they had gone with the business news one, I would have been disappointed but I would have understood. But to hand it to another rock station, to a demo that’s already wildly over-served, just seems to be preposterous. The economy is not great and every story you read in the business press says it’s not going to get better any time soon so we came along and we said this is the goldilocks solution. We’re not really bringing in any new financial pressure on the market, we’re simply securing distribution to a large audience that’s got nowhere else to go,” said Znaimer.
“I can only conclude that it is a stunning case of age discrimination. There is no other word for it because they had the evidence… They turned their backs on themselves,” he added, alluding to the ages of the CRTC commission panel members. “They are all in the demo, every one of them.”
The CEO added his executive team will be meeting within the next week to decide whether or not to appeal the decision to federal cabinet."


WOW! And I thought the NCRA were crybabies. He even manged to pull the "ageist' card. And I didn't even know there was one in this deck. Remember when Znaimer brought you "MUCH MUSIC" and "The New Music"? Well now he wants you all to; "GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN KIDS!"
Oh and by the way that threat to appeal to the Federal Cabinet? It's total bullshit. The Federal Cabinet is barred by law from interfering in the licensing process. Even CKLN had their lawyers explain that to them (probably very slowly) when they made the same empty threat. Given his years of experience you would have though he would have known about that already but never having people so no to you must get a little addictive. It's never a good sign when you are dumber than CKLN.

Well now we know what Ryerson's promises are worth

In their current license application to regain the old CKLN signal at 88.1 FM in Toronto Ryerson swore up and down that the "New Ryerson Radio" would have a deep commitment to Toronto's music and cultural scene. That they would have significant community involvement as per the CRTC's regulations. Never mind that their application has Byzantine rules clearly designed to prevent that from actually happening. Never mind that Ryerson President Sheldon Levy specifically promised, in an interview with the Ryerson press, that they would never "give up control of the station again".
Not to worry though, it's not like Ryerson doesn't have a track record of respecting Toronto's music and cultural community right? Take Sam The Record Man for example. Back in 2007 when Sam's went bankrupt and Ryerson bought the buildings Levy promised that Ryerson would preserve the iconic store front signs with their spinning neon records, a Toronto landmark since the 1960's. He assured every one within camera range that of course Ryerson had nothing but respect for Toronto's cultural and musical heritage.


This wasn't just an idle boast to the media either. It was a promise made to Toronto City Council in order to get permission to buy and raze the actual buildings.
Well you can probably guess what would happen next;
(From "The Torontoist" June 14 2007);
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOS—Save Our Sam’s
By David Topping
In less than two weeks, all of Sam the Record Man’s contents are going up for sale at auction. Yesterday, we confirmed with Benaco Sales Ltd., the auctioneers for the property, that the most coveted and contentious part of the building—its entire front façade, including the iconic “THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT” records and “SAM” logos (minus the red backdrop, which is unmovable)—would indeed be part of the sale. But that’s not the end of the story.
The Save the Sam’s Sign!!! Facebook group, which is fast approaching 20,000 members, is, understandably, freaking out (as is the other Facebook group devoted to the same end, with about 10,000 members). Posted to the Save the Sam’s Sign group’s page is an e-mail from Heritage Toronto, written by Rod Kelly. It reads, in part, as follows:
Upon hearing that there was an interest in having the [neon signs on the front of the Sam the Record Man store] designated as being of heritage significance, Heritage Toronto immediately contacted Heritage Preservation Services, the City of Toronto department responsible for the Inventory of Heritage Properties, requesting that the issue be reviewed and what future steps could be taken to have the signs designated.
Within hours Heritage Toronto was told that the City of Toronto would be going forward to designate the sign. The designation will describe the sign, location and require that should the site be redeveloped the sign will be reinstalled, same location and be lighted at night. Heritage Toronto has committed to continue to work with Heritage Preservation Services to advance the plan and congratulates them for their swift and positive response.
The process for designation under the Ontario Heritage Act is essential to be sure that all aspects of the subject matter are assessed thoroughly and detailed in any recommendation to designate the site or structure.
Heritage Toronto’s website confirms the information, and today we spoke on the phone with Rod Kelly from Heritage Toronto, who also reiterated the information provided so far.
While the city (specifically, Heritage Preservation Services) intends to designate the signs as historical under the Ontario Heritage Act, and thus keep them intact, illuminated lights and all, it’s not so simple—especially in light of the fast-approaching auction. Kelly told us today that there is a possibility that the family could still sell the façade if they wanted to, in spite of historical designation. It’s not a sure thing: if the city designates the signs as historical soon enough, it is possible for the government to overrule the family—possible, not definite. But time is running out.
Here on Torontoist, if the signs do end up at auction, we’ve been tossing around the idea of mobilizing our readership and Torontonians as a whole to donate money and place a substantial bid on the sign on their behalf, but we’d rather it not have to come to that—instead, the best thing would be for the city to preserve the signs, intact, as-is, as they are now in the process of trying to do. What will happen next and how quickly it will happen is anyone’s guess, but we’ll try to keep you in the loop, especially if we get involved ourselves. At this point, it seems that the family’s word will be the final one. We’re hoping that they make the right decision.
UPDATE (June 16, 1:45 p.m.): The Star reports that Ryerson is interested in the property but is (like all of us) waiting on word from the family.
UPDATE (June 19, 5:30 p.m.): Eye‘s Dale Duncan writes that “Kyle Rae said this morning that his preservation panel will be bringing forward a motion [at this week's City Council] regarding the Sam the Record Man sign. The panel was late writing it up, so it’s uncertain what it will entail just yet, but Rae told the council: “it’s important that this get heard this session.”
UPDATE (June 20, 1:30 p.m.): Today’s sitting of Council is hearing the motion to historically designate the Sam’s sign (the last item on the agenda), which was moved by Councillor Rae and seconded by Councillor McConnell.
UPDATE (June 22, 1:30 p.m.): Still waiting on the Council to discuss the motion (it was being held by Councillor Mike Del Grande, for some reason), but in the interim here’s a copy of the motion to be put forward [PDF], which states, in part, as follows:
The intention of this Motion is to designate the property at 347 and 349 Yonge Street to protect Sam the Record Man sign, in recognition of its cultural heritage value. The sign is threatened due to the imminent closure of the store and subsequent auctioning of the sign on June 27, 2007. Heritage Preservation Services staff feel this is a significant landmark in the downtown and should be protected through designation.
The entire sign on the front (west) façade and above the entryway at both 347 and 349 Yonge are identified for designation. This includes the iconic large spinning disc neon signs with their red backgrounds, the “SAM” signs atop it and the backlit sign beneath. The smaller spinning disc neon signs on the adjacent façade at 341 Yonge are not identified for designation.
In addition to the opinion of professional staff, there is a great deal of public and media interest in the protection of the sign. The sign will be sent to auction before the next City Council meeting if this matter is not addressed in an urgent fashion.
UPDATE (June 23, 11:00 a.m.): Yay! Both CTV and The Star are reporting that the signs have been saved by the City, with The Star (whose article was written most recently) reporting that the entire building has been designated a heritage building. According to Kyle Rae, “[the City will] sit down with the owner or future owners as the property is being sold, and we hope to be able to maintain the two discs and `Sam’ signs on the rooftop as part of the ongoing history of Yonge Street.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Yes that was inspiring wasn't it? Everyone coming together to save a Toronto landmark and a huge institute showing respect for our cultural sector. The system works!
Well you can probably guess what would happen next;
(from "The Eyeopener" July 2012);
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rye plans to shun historic Sam sign 2 Comments 09 November 2011 SamSam the Record Man in 2008. FILE PHOTO Ryerson has vowed to pay homage to the Sam the Record Man site by incorporating its iconic signage into the new Student Learning Centre, but documents revealed they would rather not. Associate News Editor Carolyn Turgeon investigates Sam the Record Man was once an integral part of Yonge Street, but Ryerson is not a fan of the iconic sign. “I would rather not use the sign,” said Ryerson President Sheldon Levy. This would come as a surprise for community members who campaigned extensively to save the sign in 2007-08. The piece of Toronto’s heritage was designated as such by Kyle Rae and the Heritage Recommendation Board during his term as Ward 27 councillor. Rae, who has since established urban consultant company PQR Solutions, said that when Sam’s went bankrupt there were many people who contacted his office and made Facebook groups about maintaining the sign. “There were probably two generations of Torontonians who grew up and saw it as their rite of passage as teenagers,” said Rae. “I agreed at that time that there was probably a significant impact from that sign.” He now views the sign’s significance in a different light. “There is still a cadre of Torontonians that can identify with this sign, but many current ones don’t know [about it],” he said. He understands the university’s hesitation to place the sign on one of their buildings. “It’s difficult to expect Ryerson to stick the sign on their property when the association will be lost,” said Rae. The stipulations were that if they were to build on the property, Sam’s sign would have to be restored from its broken down state and then incorporated. The original plan was that the sign could either be used in the design of the Student Learning Centre (SLC) or put on the South side of the library building, facing Gould Street. “In order for the university to be able to move on [the property]they had to negotiate with the city where the sign would be reconstructed,” said Levy. “I’m not sure, to be honest, if that’s something we should be asking property owners to do,” said current Ward 27 councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. Levy also revealed that restoring and mounting the sign to the building will cost approximately $250,000, which he believes could be better spent by the university. Concillor Wong-Tam said there are other complications as well. “It may not be physically possible given the size of the sign as well as technology having changed,” she said. The sign also doesn’t fit into the city’s new sustainable design for Yonge Street, and its outdated technology would be power consuming and hard to accommodate. There are now discussions for a more appropriate use of the sign or a different tribute that would better fulfill the needs of the school. “We are trying to discuss with [city council] a better place to memorialize the Sam’s location,” said Levy. The Eyeopener obtained a status report on the SLC which proposed a sidewalk tribute instead of the original plan. Levy acknowledged that a sidewalk tribute was being considered, while Wong-Tam said Ryerson had taken steps in developing an interpretive commemorative plaque for the property. Levy does not think Sam Sniderman’s sons, Bobby and Jason, would object. “It wasn’t family that made the issue, it was certain members of the Toronto community that saw it as an important thing and the city council respected their wishes and put it as a condition on the university,” said Levy. He said Ryerson will make their case, and the citizens may argue against it, but it will ultimately be up to the council. “Should they make no other decision we are obliged to follow what they have already decided and we will,” said Levy. According to Rae, the sign was never properly maintained and the city had to get Sam a grant before he would fix it in the late ‘90s. “We were trying to get it to look like the people who owned property on Yonge Street cared,” said Rae. “Frankly, Sam didn’t care.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So we went from "Of course we will protect the sign! We are totally committed to Toronto's cultural heritage" to "Uhh; how about a plaque and a website that we can get some student to slap together? Now go away; I'm busy buying up Massey Hall for our new computer center".
Now there's the rapacious Ryerson we all know. Absorbing the surrounding neighbourhood like they're the Borg, if not the Blob.
This by the way is not the first time they have done this. When they bought Sam's (where I used to work BTW) they also bought the Sam's warehouse a few blocks away on Church st. You may recall it. It had a giant mural painted on the outside wall which included Stompin Tom Collins and The Tragically Hip. You may have noticed it's long gone. Yes that blank wall with generic Ryerson logo is much better. Thanks Sheldon.



At any rate there something The CRTC may want to mull over while pondering Ryerson's promises to make "The New Ryerson Radio" a Voice for the Community". Especially since their proposed bylaws specifically block that involvement. That's one promise I actually believe they intend to keep.

Report from the 88.1fm freeding frenzy

The announcement last fall that the CRTC was opening up the last major FM radio frequency in Toronto led to a larger than usual deluge of applications to fill it. The various applicants show a vast array of Toronto's population from Christians to Gays, from Sikhs to Tamils, from French to Jamaicans, from Indie Rock to Blues. There are applications for talk radio and various music genres mixed in with applications from Ryerson and the CBC. Originally there were 27 applicants but by the final deadline they were down to 22. Here then are the applicants (drumroll please and save your applause till the end);

1. The Evanov Group and PROUD FM;
Owned by Bill Evanov, PROUD FM is the "Gay themed" radio station that has been on air since 2007 at 103.9fm with a small 60 watt signal, and they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal capable of reaching the entire city. Evanov started this bidding war by putting in the first application which acted as a starter's pistols for everyone else. Besides PROUD FM Evanov also owns numerous other stations across Canada and last year was granted a similar license for a Gay themed station in Montreal. One bonus for this one, besides being able to claim they are representing a marginalized community, is that Evanov is proposing to move from 103.9 to 88.1fm which would then open up 103.9 fm for bidding for those who wanted another chance at this. The CRTC might actually like that since it would mean the weren't quite giving away the final signal while at the same time the smaller reach of 103.9 fm would probably convince some of the others to drop out leading to a smaller feeding frenzy next time.

PROUD FM promo;

http://www.proudfm.com/

2. Ryerson University;
Actually Ryerson started off the feeding frenzy in the first place when they lost the license for the previous Ryerson based station, CKLN, whose license was revoked in 2010 as we all know by now. Their attempt to regain the license uses a couple of the old CKLN management and has the support of the National Campus Radio Association (mostly from out west), but is far more Ryerson-centric and not really a true community station than was CKLN. They are promising a mix of "ethnic" programming with Ryerson sports and live music which seems a little vague and confusing and probably of little interest to any non-Ryerson student. In fact it may of little interest even to them. As the CRTC pointed out several times the referendum that agreed to fund the station had only a 10% voter turnout. Another question is whether Ryerson be rewarded for shutting down the last station they had.

Radio Ryerson Promo;


http://ryersonradio.com/

3. The CBC;
Anyone hoping they were looking at moving CBC 3 to the airwaves can forget it, this is an application for a French language repeater station. The CBC has certain advantages over other applications in that they don't have to prove they are financially sustainable, because they're the CBC. And they don't have to prove they have technical and professional experience and know-how, because they're the CBC. It is also part of the expressed mandate of both the CBC and the CRTC to promote National Unity and Bilingualism. In fact the CBC has basically said that they are entitled to the signal and shouldn't even have to bid with all these peasants. That didn't earn many friends. However there is a legitimate question as to whether Toronto's tiny Francophone community warrants a radio station anyway. The current audience for French language TV stations in Toronto is negligible and a couple of years ago Champlain Books, Toronto's venerable French bookstore, was forced to close it's doors. Then there is the matter of whether it is a good idea for the Mother Corp to be starting another radio station while they are going through serious budget cuts. As an additional wrinkle there is another French language application coming from CHOQ FM, and you can imagine all the manufactured outrage from the Tories and their mouthpieces over at the Sun if CBC got it over CHOQ, or anyone else for that matter.

4. CHOQ FM;
A French language station operating with a tiny signal at 1watt on 105.1fm since 2006, like PROUD FM they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal. They face the same questions about the viability of a French station in Toronto. They may have one advantage over the CBC however; a local track record and the knowledge that Toronto's Francophone community is different than Ottawa's in that many don't come from Quebec, Acadia or Northern Ontario (unlike CBC staff) but from Africa and Haiti. The CBC signal is going to be a repeater signal anyway so if there is an actual need for a French station in Toronto it would be better to give it to a group with actual local roots. Like PROUD FM they would also be giving up their current signal, tiny though it is.
www.choq.fm

5. CARN FM;
The Caribbean station owned by Fitzroy Gordon which only got it's license last year now wants an upgrade, moving from 96.8 to 88.1fm. Like the PROUD FM application this would then open up 96.8 to someone else. They now say they need an upgrade to survive, but since they've only been on air less than a year the CRTC is unlikely to be very impressed with this claim. In their application they also take time out to basically call the CBC jerks and liars for opposing them the last time out so that should be fun. At least this time Gordon manages to avoid bragging about his close personal friendship with Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny as he has in every interview in the past year.

Fitzroy Gordon whines about the CBC again;



http://g987fm.com/

6. INDIE 88;
An application from Barrie based Rock 95 to start an "Indie Rock" station which appear to similar to the much beloved CFNY in it's 1980's glory days, before it turned into the much watered down "Edge 102". This one may be a bit of a long-shot but it has gotten some support from the local music scene (I must point out that I also wrote a letter of support) and if done right could appeal to the same kind of engaged scenesters. To win over such a grass roots audience they will have to prove that even though they are in Barrie they can get deeply in touch with the local scene. Then again CFNY started out in Burlington and that worked out pretty well. They also have to be able to define what "Indie" music means to the CRTC who seem to have some trouble with the concept.

INDIE 88


7. DAWG FM;
An application for a "Rock and Blues" station from two brothers who own a similar station in Ottawa where it's worked out well. They have generated one of the largest amount of support letters and there is certainly an audience for blues that is not being served by the bland JAZZ FM. The Ottawa Blues Festival is a big yearly event that one would think could be exported here easily. However the Toronto blues club scene has dried up over the last decade as the audience has moved out further to the suburbs and not been replaced with younger fans. The fading Toronto Blues Society has failed utterly to face this problem so how would DAWG deal with this? At any rate their schedule seems to lean more towards the rock end of things so they might be competing more with Q107 anyway. Oh, and their logo is really ugly too. Still; it's not a bad idea. This is my second favorite one after Indie 88. They also have the support of Dan Ackroyd who appeared via tele-conference

DAWG FM Promo;

http://www.dawgfm.com/

8. Zoomer Radio;
Moses Znaimer's radio for people too old for that darn internet thingy wants to expand. They say their AM 740 signal is so crappy that they just have to move. Unlike PROUD FM or CARN he does not want to give up his current signal however. That does raise an obvious question; if AM 740 is so terrible why do they insist on keeping it? He does have a letter of support from Anne Murray though. So there.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/

9. CHIN;
Toronto's longstanding multicultural pioneer looks to expand as well, with additional language programming for Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Farsi. They are also not into giving up any of their existing signals. CHIN has an excellent track record and few enemies, and can honestly claim to represent communities otherwise not well served. They are genuinely popular in such circles and have made a lot of high placed friends in politics and should not be discounted. CHIN has proved that is is possible for such a station to pay it's bills and behave professionally. However does Toronto really need another CHIN station?
http://www.chinradio.com/

10. Trust Ministries;
A Christian group who own two other radio stations. Oddly enough manager Scott Jackson used to work for Bill Evanov (of PROUD FM) so that should make for an interesting reunion. They have apparently been working on this for a while and were the second group to announce their intentions (after Evanov) and Jackson also ran a mega successful Christian station in Nashville so they are no amateurs. They are also a registered charity. Their website acknowledges they are a bit of a long shot and asks supporters to pray. I'd say they didn't have a prayer but that would just be wrong.

Trust Ministries promo

http://www.lifeonline.fm/toronto.html

11. Family FM;
This one is a little odd. They are claiming to be focused on "Families" whatever that means. Since when is that a genre? They focus on the likes of Raffi and Sharon, Lewis and Bram, but then admit that that will only make up a small part of their actual programming, the rest is bland easy listening. Their vague format is vainly searching for a niche that probably does not exist in any real way. Actually the head of this one, Paul Fredricks, is connected with a Christian Bookstore called "Faith Family Books" which explains alot, although they don't mention the Christian part. They also have the involvement of Jane Hawtin (ex of Q107, CFRB and CBC) who brings radio experience and Pinball Clemmons (ex of The Argos) who brought some jokes and his big smile to the hearings.
http://www.eiradionetworks.com/FamilyFM/about.html

12. BIZ 88;
An application for a Business news format. This has been tried by Blumberg in New York and gotten consistently poor ratings for years. However because of it's high-end audience advertisers may not mind that very much. It's also pretty cheap to run. They have veteran TV news journalist Donna Skelly on board. There was a previous attempt at an "All Business and Traffic and Weather" format a few years ago that quickly failed, even after they desperately tried to attract attention by airing right wing crackpot shows from America like Glen Beck and other denizens of FOX. Since apparently that's what our business leaders want; bizarro conspiracy theories about Obama and Hitler. I can't imagine why that didn't catch on here. Their programming has a lot of blank spots that they are vague on how they intend to fill, which doesn't instill a lot of faith. However that previous station was a low power station with only a localized signal by the airport. This one is run by the same group that owns CHCH in Hamilton who recently had to apologize for accidentally running porn on the air. Nobody mentioned that though since that's presumably not part of their programming plans.
http://biz88.ca/

13. World Band Media;
Another talk radio application. This one has deep pockets and a former Mike Harris era Cabinet Minster on it's Board so they are not fooling around. To prove it, along with their application they also filed a separate and amazing 29 page hostile intervention attacking all the other applications which is pretty hard hitting. Still it's another talk radio format that belongs on AM and which doesn't offer a very convincing argument in their own favour as they want yet another droning talk radio station. Because Toronto doesn't have enough of those already. The best argument they can come up with is to basically say that every other type of radio is going downhill anyway so it's pointless to resist, like talk radio is the Borg or something. Still; should the last FM signal in Toronto be wasted on a talk radio format that really belongs on AM if at all? I think not.
http://www.worldbandmedia.com/

14. TNT Media;
Yet another Talk Radio application. This time from a Montreal group who already own a station there and promise "Extreme, Explosive Talk Radio", (translation; American style all-outrage-all-the-time) and their application uses a lot of exclamation points. Great, that's just what we need. Especially on FM. That above mentioned hostile intervention from Worldband is especially disdainful of this one. But not as much as I am.

15. Metro 88.1;
From Larche Communications who own four other successful stations in Ontario, either country or classic rock so they are not amateurs either. No this is not another doomed attempt at a country station in Toronto. This a doomed attempt at a vague "AAA" format which freely translated means "Rock and pop for people too old for The Edge but not old enough for an oldies station, and too rock and roll for EZ Rock but not quite enough for Q107", mixed with some comedy. Their application has a bunch of figures to prove that they won't just be competing with CHUM FM, Q107 or JACK FM, none of which I believe.

Metro 88 promo


16. Tower 88 fm;
A bland easy listening aimed at women in particular, wait; isn't that why we have EZ Rock? Run by Micheal Wekerle, a radio newbie with a lot of business experience and cash. How much cash you ask? He has Ivan Fecan, former head of CTV on board. They also sweeten the pot by promising to play tons of Canadian content and Aboriginal artists that got them the support of former Chief Phil Fontaine. That's a lot of fire-power for what is otherwise another easy listening station.

TOWER 88 promo


17. Durham Radio Inc;
Durham owns four other stations, mostly country or easy rock. Here they are calling themselves "88.1, The Lake FM", which is one of those annoying pointless brand names radio stations give themselves these days, remember when "The Edge" used to be called "CFNY"? That was when they were actually pretty cool. "The Lake"? What does that mean exactly? Are they going to be playing sea shanties? Actually it's anther bland commercial Easy Listening station which, or the music your dentist plays in the waiting room. Their application is possibly one of the biggest and contains a mind numbing amount of charts and figures, which is only slightly more boring than listening to the station itself would be.

18. Newcap Radio inc;
Yet another easy listening station. Newcap owns a jawdropping 79 other stations though so they must know something. Actually in the time it took me to write this they actually got another one. Seriously.

19. Stan 88fm;
An English language multi-cultural urban/hip-hop/pop/smooth jazz station aimed at second and third generation listeners. It's modestly named after it's owner Stanislas Antony. This might even be a workable idea in a multi ethnic city like Toronto, on the other hand it's so vague it might be a really stupid idea, either way it's different and Toronto is one of the few places it could have come from. At the hearings the CRTC was very skeptical about their finances, so that's a big problem.

20. Asia FM;
A Korean run Asian station which will however be mostly in English with 14% in Korean. The music will be pop and dance from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. I know there is a large Asian community in Toronto but how many prefer mostly English? How will Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, or Thais (who all have longstanding rivalries) enjoy sharing a station? Do they really have converging tastes? Will they all stick around for the Korean language parts? How many are happy to keep getting their music from the web? It's a bold idea but a risky one. They got the best line in the hearings when one of the other applicants claimed that Toronto already had a Chinese station in Fairchild Radio. Their response; "We shouldn't have to point out that not all Asians are Chinese." Good one.

21. S. Sivakkumaran;
Not surprisingly it's an application for a ethnic radio station aimed at Tamil, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Philippino and African communities. This puts them in direct competition with CHIN of course, as well as a brand new Tamil station in Scarborough. However if the CRTC decides that CHIN has enough radio stations that may not hurt them to much, sure doesn't help though.

22.MTSD Broadcast inc;
This is an application for a station aimed at the Punjabi community. There is no doubt an audience here, but they are being opposed by some of the existing radio stations catering to the Punjabis. It is also too limited compared to most of the other choices.

There were originally supposed to be a few other applicants who announced but then either dropped out or were dropped by the CRTC before the hearings for failing the technical aspects as the CRTC reserves the right to do. One such application was from Astral Media who no doubt dropped out when they announced their upcoming merger with Bell which will require them to divest some of their stations including The Flow. Another applicant was for a Tamil station which has instead decided to apply for a station in Markham. Oddly the other three or four were all South Asian applicants

Erzra Levant tries to save CKLN? WTF?

Most of the predictable hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing, and nut job conspiracy theory rants that followed the loss of CKLN's license were from the usual suspects. The far wack-job left and the NDP activists who enable them. With the usual accusations of racism, "corporate agendas", fascism, white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, censorship and the various other foul deeds our ruling masters have in store for "the voiceless". Ho Hum.

And then there's Ezra Levant. For those who don't know he is the resident Glen Beck wannabe over at Canada's very own Fox News wannabe, the Sun News Network. There he is every damn day with that supercilious smirk and his snide "aren't I outrageous and clever" blanket attacks on Liberals, Unions, Muslims, the media "chattering class" (which he totally isn't a part of really), "elitists" (ditto), "social engineering" (double ditto), Greens, artists, teachers, feminists, the Europeans and basically anybody who doesn't think that Ayn Rand was a brilliant philosopher rather than a spoiled narcissistic hag with verbal diarrhea and an ego only slightly more ludicrously inflated than Ezra Levant's.

Actually you not recall that he once had delusions of getting Harper's job back when Harper was just getting settled in as Tory leader. Levant announced his intention of running as a candidate for the very riding that Harper himself wanted. So Harper told him to get lost, then Levant, with a laughably deluded sense of his own power actually refused, publicly daring the new leader of his own party to take him on. Later after having a temporary moment of clarity Levant grudgingly stepped aside "for the good of the party". Needless to say Harper was rather unamused and Levant's political career was even shorter than Harper's temper.

So our hero went back to being a carnival barker looking for a soapbox, oh and a lobbyist for the oil and tobacco industries, until he got a home at Fox North which went on the air on this April. He used his first show to attack the CRTC which had offended Fox North (and South for that matter) by not giving them the preferential treatment to which they are entitled, although he didn't mention that part of course. Preferring to instead rally support from the left for attack on the CRTC by coming to the defense of the recently shut down CKLN.

His full rant is below;

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.torontosun.com/2011/04/19/crtcs-a-dinosaur-2
CRTC's a dinosaur
The last thing Canadians need is this group regulating the web
By Ezra Levant ,QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 10:15:01 EDT AM

A group of Canadian TV companies has banded together to ask the CRTC to regulate the Internet, and crack down on a U.S. based website called Netflix.
They're worried that, if left to themselves, Canadians will start getting their favourite movies and TV shows from Netflix over their computer, or even their cellphone, instead of from cable TV. And they want the government to stop that threat.
So it would be like the candle-making tycoons of the 19th century writing a letter to John A. Macdonald asking him to shut down that troublesome Thomas Edison fellow, and his dangerous electric light.
There's something pitiful here, almost sad. Instead of trying to compete with Netflix, Canadian big businesses are trying to rig the rules, forcing Netflix to submit to all of the red tape, taxes and government meddling they have to obey.
Regulating the Internet is an audacious proposal. The CRTC would have to build something like the Chinese dictatorship has done — the Great Firewall of China — to censor content the CRTC doesn't approve of.
Could you imagine if they were successful? How many bureaucrats would be needed to monitor the Internet, full time? They'd even need to get into your Facebook page, and your e-mails, to make sure you weren’t getting your videoclips from an illegal source.
Who is this CRTC? It stands for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. So it's about as fresh and current as the vacuum tube. They're a government agency created decades ago, back when people didn't know any better about letting the government control TV and radio.
Today, the CRTC's chief reason to exist is to perpetuate itself — to keep expanding its bureaucratic empire. It's called mission creep. If it was a private company, it would have gone out of business around the time Betamax did. When was the last time a government bureaucracy stopped, just because it became useless?

Pulled the plug

The CRTC is worse than useless, though. It’s dangerous to freedom. Take this shocking example from just last week.
The CRTC ordered a little community radio station in Toronto, called CKLN, off the airways last Friday. They just issued the command — and CKLN went silent, after 28 years of serving the community.
Why? According to the CRTC, there was “infighting” in the business. So what? What organization doesn’t have infighting? The CRTC does.
The CRTC says CKLN radio didn’t have enough musical diversity. That’s absurd — it was the first hip-hop radio station in Canada, that launched rap careers like Maestro Fresh Wes, a pioneering Canadian musician. So a radio station that featured black music and gay dance music was shut down for being too straight and narrow by a bunch of old white guys in Ottawa.
Maybe they’ll tell country music stations to have more opera for diversity, too.
But the real beef the CRTC had with CKLN radio was the little station didn’t fill out all of its paperwork properly. CKLN radio is a community station, run by volunteers on a shoestring budget. It’s affiliated with Ryerson University — many of the people running it are just students. But because they couldn’t keep up with the avalanche of paperwork and forms sent over by the CRTC, they’re put out of business.
This is the bright future the CRTC would bring to regulating the Internet.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

As might be expected Fat Bastard Lehrer and the CKLN "community" wasted no time in embracing one of their right wing bogeymen and pasted links to this rant everywhere that would allow then, including a place of honour on the CKLN Wikipedia entry; Fat Bastard boasts that he has enough Wikipedia clout to shut down anything or anyone he doesn't like and a glance at the history of the Wikipedia article does seem to show that "someone" quickly deletes any attempt to make the article more balanced.

Setting aside the complete cynicism of Levant using these far left wackjobs to further his own (and his employer's) agenda of destroying the CRTC, you can certainly why Fat Bastard would feel right at home with Levant at Fox North. They both have the same total disregard for allowing a little thing like "facts" to get in the way of ideological propaganda.

Firstly CKLN was not shut down for being "too black or gay", nor for "not having enough diversity", nor for "not filling a little paperwork", nor is CKLN run "mostly by students". That hasn't been true since Adam Vaughn, David Barnard and Denise Benson took over in the early 1980's and edged out most of the students in favour of political activists and professional DJ's. CKLN was shut down for massive and ongoing incompetence and complete disregard for basic rules of compliance as the CRTC's ruling (which he did not quote from) shows.

Also he uses the usual lame "thin edge of the wedge argument" to suggest that the CRTC is looking to hack into your "facebook page and read your emails" which besides being bullshit neglects to mention that the govt. and courts can easily get a warrant to do that anyway and law and order right wingers never have any problems with that. Also I notice he has no problems with the fact that Harper is already monitoring our facebook pages anyway looking for people to ban from his rallies.

On a historical note I see he uses this Thomas Edison analogy about candle makers using the CRTC to ban light bulbs. Well Thomas Edison himself actually used lawyers and patent law to shut down competitors who had better versions of many of his "inventions".

Actually many of Edison's most famous inventions weren't even his. He bought most of his patents from others including the light bulb itself, the patent for which he bought from two Canadian inventors in 1879 when they were unable to raise enough capital to compete. That's right two Canadians, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans actually invented the light bulb which Edison got all the credit and wealth for. I expect Americans to be this ignorant but seeing as how one of the slogans of Fox North AKA Sun News is "Unapologetically Patriotic" you would think they might want to show a little hometown pride. But then that would interfere with the point that Levant is trying to make here which is that Robber Barons like Edison must be free from government intrusion so they can create the products that make our lowly lives easier. Right?

Well maybe that whole light bulb affair was an anomaly. Edison invented other stuff right? Like the movies for example. Well no he didn't, but he did buy a lot of patents and became the major film maker in North America at the turn of the 20th century and he used his control of those patents to shut down competition thus retarding the development of the motion picture and record industries for decades while he protected his monopolies. He eventually lost in court, but it cost his competitors a fortune to do it. In the meantime the Europeans (who ignored his patents) were able to develop there own film industries to the point where those in France, Germany, Scandinavia and Italy were actually making more, and much better movies than those in cartel controlled America. It wasn't in fact until after World War 1 wiped out the Europeans and Edison was forced by the courts to give up his patent controls that the Hollywood industry finally took hold. Edison's own film studios didn't survive long, turned out that he had no talent as a film maker, and once there was competition he was finished.

Ditto for later developments in radio when David Sarnoff was able to use his superior resources and ownership of patents (none of which he invented) to keep FM off the dial for decades to protect his AM empire intact. FM was actually discovered by one of his employees, Edwin Armstrong. However Sarnoff decided that FM would make his AM empire somewhat moot, so he had the prototype destroyed and forced Armstrong out. Armstrong fought back by going independent but Sarnoff tired him up with litigation for years until a distraught Armstrong finally killed himself. His widow finally beat Sarnoff in court, but it took years, meanwhile FM was kept off the air for over a decade to the benefit of nobody but Sarnoff and his empire.

Then there's the electric car. There's a whole movie about that. And speaking of movies and cars you might want to check out "Tucker; The man and his dream". And so on. And there was no CRTC or FCC to blame for any of this. Just corporate greed. That's the "bright future" that Levant had in mind. And CKLN's "anti-capitalists" were perfectly happy to endorse this as long as their own pathetic and seedy monopoly is preserved.

Of course since this was written the Tory Government that Ezra Levant carries water for came out for a the most highly restrictive and highly intrusive proposed law to allow police to hack into your emails, with no warrant or probable cause whenever they decide that you, yes you may be a terrorist. Or a child molester. Or a drug lord. Or whatever. I'm sure we can count on Ezra Levant to defend us from this right? Hello? Is this thing on?